


Bloom

by dat_assriel



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Comfort/Angst, Depression, Eventual Relationships, Eventual Smut, F/F, F/M, M/M, Monster Heat, Mute Frisk, No More Resets, Reader Is Not Frisk, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Slow Romance, four years after the barrier came down, ghost dick, hella slow relationship, lots of fluff, reader is female, skelefuck
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-13
Updated: 2016-02-22
Packaged: 2018-05-20 01:03:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5986978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dat_assriel/pseuds/dat_assriel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You're new in the town of Penshaw, the town at the base of Mt. Ebott. You meet some pretty rad monsters and your life changes. For better or worse. Though, you think you're starting to fall for a short skeleton.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Getting Settled?

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!! My first attempt at writing actual fanfiction and I think you're going to enjoy it!  
> my tumblr is http://www.dat-assriel.tumblr.com !

“Ah, finally!” You sigh as you see the welcome sign, signaling you have just entered the city you've been pining after for these long past eight hours. You were worried the whole way over here, thoughts popping in your head and causing you to get tunnel vision from worry. The most popular question in your head was _'what if I don't get a job'_ but you had more faith in yourself than the average college student.

You had accepted the tuition offer from Penshaw Technical, to major in Astronomy. You were top of your class in high school and you have always had a love for the stars and universe. You were excited to start your first semester but you were also a little nervous. You had no connections here in the new city and you also had no friends or family. You were all alone.

Biting back a very small feeling of regret, you pulled into the new house, making note of the tea and bar place down from your place. There was a sign outside that said it was hiring. You checked your watch and noticed you had actually gotten here pretty early and that the moving truck wouldn't be here until later, give or take a few hours. You decided now would be a good a time as any to go check it out.

As you jog up the street, you actually read the sign: Grillby's. What an interesting name.

You go inside, a sharp bell alerting the customers and host of your arrival. The host comes up to you, a smaller lad with horns and claws for hands, asks how you are and if you'd like for him to show you a seat. You thank him and tell him you would like to speak to the manager and he ushers you to follow him. He was a spunky little guy who almost bounced with every step. Seemed he was perfect for the job.

He led you to the bar where he told you to sit and wait a few while he alerted the boss. You nod and decide to look around, actually taking the place in. It was very warm and very sunset-like in colors. It made you feel relaxed to the point where you almost thought about ordering a tea, but remembered why you were here and also that you had to save up for essentials. Tea could wait for when you possibly got the job.

It wasn't more than five minutes when a fire elemental walked out to the bar and greeted you with a small nod. He looked like he was nice enough; pretty tall, warm glow, and his nametag read ‘Grillby’. He didn't say anything but stopped in front of you and tilted his head slightly as if to say, 'can I help you?'

You perked up and introduced yourself. “I just moved in across the way there,” you gestured to the way behind you, “and I noticed you had a hiring sign in the window. I've got experience with customer service and waitressing, and I'm twenty-five so I can work the bar if need be.” You go on with your background and Grillby listened intently, or at least, you think he was listening intently. You couldn't tell from his expressionless face and the fact that his eyes seemed to hide behind his glasses.

After you finished up telling about yourself, Grillby nods and ushers you to follow him to the back. “I can start training you today but your official day won't start until tomorrow.” His voice was surprisingly low and casual, almost like he didn't want to say anything. There was a hint of gravel in his voice, either from being hoarse from not talking or from having coals shoved down his throat to keep the fire going. Heh, you probably shouldn't repeat that out loud.

You found monsters very interesting and would like to know more about them but you didn't have anyone to really … experiment on or study. Not that you would actually experiment on them; that sounds like something your parents would do, though.

Your new boss handed you a lot of worksheets and asked that you learn to make the drinks listed and left you to it. There was a practice shelf in the back of the kitchen for practicing new mix drinks and you sauntered on over.

You had spent at least four hours mixing drinks, and needless to say, you picked up on mastering them pretty fast. It was at this point where you glance at your watch. You were having so much fun flipping drinks and mixing things that you lost track of time. The moving truck would be at your house soon! Slapping everything down, you rush out and almost bump into your new boss.

“Grillby! I’m sorry to leave like this, but I totally forgot that the moving truck was going to be arriving around this time. I really have to get home and help unpack.” You scoot around him slowly, holding your hands in front of you as if you were praying, asking for forgiveness from your new, and very kind, boss.

He only nods and jerks his head toward the door, a hoarse ‘be here tomorrow at eight in the morning’ dropping from his mouth. You nod excitedly, and while showing your gratitude, you head for the door. What you don’t hear is the low rumble of a voice asking your new boss who you were.

Running now, you could see the move-in truck down the street. You waved at them as you got to your new house. You went to unlock the front door, taking in the cedar wood scent of the wood floors. As you walk in, the living room is the first thing you see. Wood paneling made up the floor until you cross into the kitchen, where black marble painted the floor. You note that it needed to be swept and walk over to the living room, eyes trained on a beautifully crafted fireplace. You decided you need to get some wood soon, hopefully for tonight, seeing as it was close to getting dark, and the moving guys would only be able to get in maybe the couch and a few of your boxes containing your sleeping necessities before it’s their off time, and you couldn’t bring yourself to bother them to stay a few to get your bed inside.

Walking to the door, the guys have backed the tuck up to the front door and were climbing inside to get a couple of boxes. “Mind if we make the couch the main priority and the box labeled necessities? Then you guys can have the rest of the night off.” They nodded and got to unloading.

You helped where you can, but the guys mainly did all the unloading. Hate that you’re not doing much, you stretch and go to unload some boxes from your SUV. You zero in on your blankets and pillows first, bringing them inside. On your way back to the door with pillows and blankets in your hands, you spot a small rack beside the porch that had a couple pieces of chopped wood settled on top of them. You breathe a sigh of relief; now you don’t have to crank the heat on just yet, and you could fall asleep to the sound of fire.

Walking in the front door, you notice the guys have brought in the couch and placed it near the fireplace. You smile and place your pillows and blankets on it and start to make your bed.

One of the guys comes in and asks if you need anything else before they head out. You remember that you’re going to be at work in the morning around eight and you tell them that you’d give them a call if you needed them. They signal you with a thumbs up and they clamber into a taxi and drive off to their hotel.

You sigh happily, looking around at your new house that looked in very good shape. Two bedroom and one bath for a total of five hundred, give or take, every month. _And_ you had a job already. Things were looking way up for you.

You make a quick trip outside to get some firewood and bring the logs inside, setting them next to the fireplace’s opening. With a quick trip to the front door to make sure it’s locked, you head into the bathroom with your pajamas, intending on getting ready for bed.

The bathroom was fairly simple in design but you thought about maybe giving it a makeover. The white tiles had dirt and, what looked like, mold growing in places, and you think maybe black would go better to pair with the black marble in the kitchen. You push aside your thoughts for later and get changed into your pajamas, which happen to be some sweatpants and a white tee. You plop your clothes in a small pile next to the couch when you make your way out of the bathroom and pick up a blanket that was thrown over the back of the couch, wrapping it around your body as you go over to the wood pile in front of the fireplace.

After setting a couple of logs in the fireplace, making sure the vent was open, and putting the rest of the logs to the side for later, you go over to a box labelled ‘necessities’ and you pull out a grill lighter. You go to light the logs but after a couple of tries, they seem to not want to light. Sighing, you pull your blanket tighter over your body. Guess there won’t be a fire tonight. You’re determined to not turn on the heat to conserve money, you wrap yourself under as many blankets as you can after slipping back into your winter sweater.

It takes you a while to get to sleep, heck, even to get comfortable, but somehow you fall asleep wrapped up like a burrito under four and a half blankets.

The crickets finally lull you to sleep.

* * *

 

You wake up to the sound of what sounded like cats fighting outside your window. Opening an eye, you glare at the window before your eyes snap open at the sight of light streaming into the living room.

“Holy – what time is it?!” You practically scream as you reach for your phone, nearly dropping it with a frustrated grunt. The clock on your phone read, “almost eight in the morning?! I’m gonna be late for my first day!” You scuttle around the living room in a panicked state but then you have to stop yourself and focus because you only have about fifteen minutes to get to work and it’s a five minute walk. You really only have time to brush your teeth and throw on the clothes you wore yesterday and you really hope no one was really watching or looking at you yesterday.

You rummage through the necessities box, quickly flinging anything you’re not looking for exactly on the floor. It takes a bit, and just when you’re about to give up, you find what you’re looking for: toothbrush and paste. Sighing with a muffled ‘yes’ and a grunt as you heave yourself up, you plow into the bathroom and quickly brush your teeth. You take a look in the mirror and your jaw drops for a minute. Your hair! Mentally screaming, you run one hand through your locks while the other one furiously scrubs your teeth. You’re constantly checking your watch on your left wrist for the time, and as it inches closer to eight, you find yourself slowly start to panic.

“Shoes…” Everything is starting to spin; maybe Grillby will let you make yourself some breakfast while you’re there. Tying up your shoelaces, you sprint to the door, open it, and skid outside, making sure you lock your door before you start your pretty fast jog down the street.

You make it just in time to see the open sign flicker to life. Stumbling into the bar, panting, you head to the back where Grillby was wiping down a couple of glasses. “Hey, Grillby, what do you want me to do today?” You manage to calm your breathing enough to get that out, at least. You’re still breathing just a little hard.

He explains that you’re going to work the bar around lunch because he’s got to attend to something. You swallow nervously, but really you shouldn’t be nervous, just play it out how you did your last job. What’s the worst that could happen? You nod and get to the back to pick out your new waitress apron and get back to practicing mixing drinks until Grillby comes to call for you. You snag a biscuit from the kitchen before you make your way to the practice bar.

You didn’t think time could go by any faster, and before you knew it, lunch time was upon you. Grillby let you get a small lunch in before you had to go out to greet the customers. He really was a kind boss.

You go out to the bar and notice a couple of people and monsters sitting up there. This place wasn’t this crowded when you came in yesterday, was it? You shake off your mental thoughts and go to the first person to make sure they’ve been helped. You take orders as you go down the bar, making sure you smile and be polite, maybe throw in a little flirting. Where’s the harm in that? You find everyone pretty attractive.

Making your way down the bar, you come to the monster sitting at the end. He was pretty short and you almost mistake him for a kid – a skeleton kid? – until he speaks. “hey sugar,” the low rumble reaching your bones and making them shiver. Definitely not a kid. “how’s about some sugar for my coffee?” He gives you a wink and a sly smile.

Chuckling, you lean against the bar and take the container with sugar in it, tip it over his coffee and stare at him with lidded eyes. “Tell me when, handsome.”

He blushed a bit; there was no denying that small shade of blue across his cheekbones. You snicker to yourself before straightening up. “that’s good,” he says after a few seconds. “are you new here, babe?”

“Just moved in yesterday. Well,” you pause, frowning, “I haven’t fully moved in, I’ve got tons of cases to unload.” You wave it off and ask if you could take his order.

“oh, i’ll just have the ketchup there,” he points a boney – literally – finger over at the assorted bottles of ketchup and you follow his gaze, unbelievingly. When you look back at the skeleton, he’s got a ketchup bottle in his hand and he’s bringing it to his mouth. This must be why Grillby has a lot of ketchup. You straighten up and sigh, shaking your head with a small laugh to yourself.

“something hit your _funny bone_?” Oh no. He does bone puns too. You can’t help when your hand goes to your mouth and you stifle a small chuckle.

“Wave if you need anything, handsome.” You wink and chuckle as you walk off. Little did you know, he was watching your every move, the tiniest of smiles on his face.

You can tell today was going to be a long one.


	2. Thunderstorms

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you so much for being patient with me!  
> life caught up and i've been busy trying to punch it back
> 
> enjoy chapter two!  
> http://www.dat-assriel.tumblr.com

By the end of the day, rain has started to come down and you didn’t plan for this. The rest of your shift, you’re either staring out the window in defeat or helping other customers. You notice that the skeleton from earlier is watching you subtly, his head down on his arms as he leans on the bar, face covered mostly by his blue jacket. He has his hood up and the fluff from it reaches just above his eye sockets, casting a gradient of shadow over his cheekbones and nasal bone.

He looked downhearted and your heart went out for him. Him, a complete stranger that was observing you from under his hood. You couldn’t help but wonder if he had any friends or anywhere else to be.

Nearing the end of your shift, you walk over to check on him, coming to sit in the seat next to him. You note that there weren’t but two people in the entire front restaurant, besides you, so technically three. The only other one was eating his food and you were keeping an ear out, but right now you wanted to comfort this lonely guy that had been here the entire day.

“Why are you skulking around here?” You nudge him with your elbow, trying to get him to look at you like he had been all day. Now he’s just looking downcast, eyes almost closed, and the small pricks of light in them were dim, until you speak. He looks up at you with a coy smile.

“was that a pun?”

You think about it for a minute, eyes widening before you burst out laughing. “I guess it was, unintentionally, haha.” You wipe the bar with the rag that was hanging out of your apron pocket subconsciously.

You eye the window that leads to nothing but a wall of rain and you have a sinking feeling that it might storm tonight. Looking at your watch, you notice it’s almost four and already dark outside.

You jumped when a finger tapped your upper arm and you look back to see the skeleton watching you curiously, sweat formulating on his brow.

“don’t mean to sound like I’m rude, but, are you alright?”

You ponder for a minute. “Yeah I’m okay, it’s just,” you gesture vaguely in the direction of the window, hoping he’d get the message. He continued to watch you, expecting you to say something and you felt your cheeks heat up just a tinge.

“The, uh, rain. It’s gonna be a bitch walking home in this downpour.” There. You said it. You had to look away but then you realized that what you had said wasn’t part of what you were actually afraid of, and the tension left your shoulders a little.

“oh, do you not have a ride home?” He turned in his seat to face you and you can see that he was doing his best to sit up and look interested and it was kind of cute-

…Cute?

Really?

Snorting a small bit, you point out that you live literally down the block. “It’s not too far, but I still don’t like – uh,” screwing your mouth shut, you curse at yourself. “I just,” you fumble for the right words to say. “I just don’t want to get home soaked and this rain looks like it’s not going to be lightening up any time soon.” In your flustered state trying to cover up what you had let slip, you turned in your seat and were now facing the window, eyeing the rain nervously.

There was silence for a little before you heard some rustling. You took a breath before turning around and suddenly you were shoved a blue blur. You blinked and scrabbled blindly for the table. You managed to prevent yourself from falling over and quickly look around to see if anyone caught that before you realize it’s only you and the skeleton in the diner now.

You should probably stop referring to him as skeleton.

After all you did just think he was cute.

Not that you’ll admit it in a hundred years.

Or one.

“you don’t have an umbrella right?” He looked at you with a shit eating grin that made you snicker to yourself.

You wanted to ask him all sorts of questions, a million a second running through your head before you recognize you were shaking your head slightly and had your gaze fixed on him.

“Ah, no, I do not,” you admit after gathering you hadn’t replied. “Wait are you offering me your jacket?” You snap out of your daze to find him in a white shirt, making it very clear that his forearms were also skeleton.

You thought about it for a minute before shrugging mentally. He could have had just a skull and the rest of his body be different, but then you thought of how much sense that made.

None.

You mean, yeah, you were new here and new to the whole monsters thing, but you weren’t one to question shit. You’ve been questioned your whole life from your friends and family. What makes you think you’re going to question the monster’s anatomy?

You pushed your thoughts aside for a moment of peace. You only wanted to ask him his name, how did all of these questions come up?

“Oh hey, what was your name?” You draped the jacket over your left arm as you stood up from the bar stool. He followed your movements and stood as well. You noted he was only a foot shorter than you and his eyes came to about your collar bone, how cute –

What the fuck, how was that cute?

Your face heated at your inner argument and tried to focus on him.

You notice he was staring at you, expecting you to say something. You look around and back at him before blushing. “I’m sorry, did you say something?”

He chuckled, a deep rumble in his chest. “I said my name is sans. what is yours?” He spoke up, rocking back on his heels in a sort of matter-of-factly way.

You hold the jacket to your stomach, hands finding something to fiddle with while you told him your name. What on earth is this feeling? You felt like you were back in high school talking to your first crush and he was talking back.

His smile, which seemed to be permanently carved onto his face, appeared to soften.

“what a cute name,” he drawled with a short wink. If you blinked, you would have missed it. You caught it, however, and your cheeks felt a little warm.

You cleared your throat before you started backing up a bit. “I’ve got to clear it with Grillby before I head out,” you hit the edge of the bar and let out a small grunt at the end of your sentence.

Excusing yourself, you find your boss in the back, washing out some glasses. He waved you off before you could ask. You stuttered to a halt before waving your hand with a smile. What an awesome boss. You were pretty sure that if you were positive the flames wouldn’t burn you, you’d give him a hug. However, you don’t really care to try to find out.

You shuffle back into the bar with a quick glance at the window. Sans was sitting back at the bar again, sipping – downing? – ketchup from the bottle.

You didn’t notice you were staring until he opened an eye socket and winked at you, putting the bottle back down.

“you need a walk home?” He was very sweet when he offered, getting up from the bar stool and shoving his hands in his jogger pants pockets. You almost turned him down if it weren’t for the flash of bright white that entered the room.

Shit.

You ducked and held onto the bar when the thunder roared and boomed in your ears. Flashbacks to when you were young and alone, cowering under your bed covers with no one to help you or comfort you. You bit back a cry before you righted yourself, slapped your face with your palms, and returned to Sans’ attention.

His eyes were on you now, almost cautious and very concerned. He was closing in on you at a slow pace and you reached for him, trying to urge him to hurry and silently asking him to walk you home.

“let’s get you home.”

You breathed a slight thank you before the next boom and bright light hit you. Your eyes are screwed shut and you clutch onto him tightly. The next thing you felt was a strong arm across your back, the feeling of floating, and then you were down the block, next to a moving van.

You almost questioned before another boom rang in your ears and you stumbled forward, still gripping onto Sans. He quickly scooped you up and you both made it under the porch awning.

Quickly reaching into your pocket, you fumbled for the keys and brought them out, unlocking the door with shaky hands. Sans reached over and helped you unlock your door, placing a bony hand over yours.

It was warm and comforting and it almost made you calm.

The cold from the rain hitting the air from your house was not, however, and you gasped. You immediately went to the thermostat to heat it up when you heard some crackle sounds.

Turning your head with a tremble in your body, you noticed Sans had gotten the fire to light. Huh, the logs must have been damp last night or something. With another boom, you were on the sofa, almost unable to hold back any sobs.

Sans was sitting next to you in a heartbeat, wrapping blankets around you like he wanted to protect you from the world. You let out a choked sob as the thunderous crashes kept coming.

He stayed there with you, rubbing your back, even pulling your head to his shoulder. You sobbed it out. You were too wrecked to even think or question anything right now.

You couldn’t help one thought escape your barrier.

“W-why?” You managed to choke out before you sobbed and gasped for air.

He shrugged and shushed you.

The pitter pat of the rain letting up after a while was enough to calm you down, and you could catch your breath. You sat up and looked at the stranger on your couch – your makeshift bed. Why had he helped you even though he barely knew you?

“you were nice to me.” He shrugged it off like it was nothing before looking around. “do you need any help unpacking?”

You stared at this skeleton with mild disbelief before smiling and wiping your face.

“I would appreciate that very much.”


End file.
